Category: Christian Life

Living a Christian Life in a Changing World

Our world is changing rapidly around us. Some would say that it is for the better. Some would argue that we are getting worse not better. We have all noticed things that have and are changing.

The way children speaking to their parents and elders

Programs on prime time tv

Content in our movies

Top 10 books

Our lifestyles – looking for more comfort.

Our worlds motto is fast becoming, as so eloquently put by Jakob Poirer, of Canada’s Worst Driver “I do what I want. If I want to learn, I will learn, and if I don’t I’ll flip you the bird.” We are becoming a society that simply does what it wants, when it wants. The bible puts it a different way “the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.” Judges 17:6   And with all that is going on around us how do we manage to live a life pleasing to God?   I think there are a few things we need to do.

1. Recognize that Christianity is not about perfection.

To many of us Christians are struggling to “be perfect”.  We heard someone teach and use the scripture “Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect” and we try to govern our lives and live a life full of rules and obligations that we feel will make us perfect some how.  We put on a good face for other Christians hoping beyond hope that they won’t see through our thin veneer of perfection to the total disaster we are living.  We know we aren’t following our “holiness code” and aren’t ‘measuring up’ to what we think God wants for us, and we are hoping that with a little more time and effort maybe tomorrow will be different.  This is also  why the world thinks we are a bunch of hypocrites.  Because we are selling a life that we cannot live ourselves.  And it isn’t working.  I love what Rick Warren said; “If the horse is dead, dismount.”

Our struggle will never make us acceptable to God.  Ever.  Only when we truly realize this can the life of God flow in us and bring about the changes that are necessary.  This is what Paul was talking about in Romans 7.  He fully knew that on his own he could never be what God wanted.  It is also how he could say “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” and “Not I that lives, but Christ who lives in me.” Paul understood that no effort of his own could ever make him “perfect”.  Only the life of Jesus in him.  We are made perfect through the sacrifice of Jesus and only through the sacrifice of Jesus.  Time for the church to put down the religious rules and recognize the fact that we cannot attain what we are trying to attain, and stop fighting to get what cannot be got.  This was the whole purpose of the law of Moses in the first place.  The law was simply there to reveal our inadequacy and our inability to be what God designed us to be on our own.  It is also why Jesus came and died.  So that through Him we could be who God designed us to be.

2. We need to hear God’s voice.

If we were purposed for something it would stand to reason that we need to hear from the designer what that purpose was.  Otherwise we would be buying a coffee maker and trying to use it for a fuel pump and getting very frustrated when it didn’t work very well.  It sounds obvious but we try to do the same thing.  Christianity is simply a relationship with our Creator and Saviour, simply taking His hand and allowing Him to make us into the very thing He designed and created us to be.  Each one of us was made for a purpose.  God doesn’t make junk and there are no mistakes in heaven.  So we need to hear God so we can learn and fulfill our purpose.

3. We need to picture God’s vision.

Everyone of us is the same.  Without vision, we will naturally wander aimlessly and waste our lives on nothing of any significance. And that is not what we were created to do.  We all have a purpose and only when we discover it can we focus on it.  When we travel it is always good to have a map so we know where we are going, because without one it is very easy to get side tracked by things and lost completely and as a result never end up at our destination.  And life is the same way.  Without and vision and focus it is easy to get lost completely and never become who we were meant to become.  And that doesn’t mean that life is necessarily wasted.  What is best in life can most often get completely lost under what is good in life.  Only when we have a overshadowing picture of where we are headed can we set aside what is good for what is best and walk away from the distractions and rabbit trails and get to our destination.

4.  We need to adopt God’s values.

Christian life cannot be lived out any way we see fit.  We cannot pick and choose what we believe and what we don’t believe.  And we cannot decide that this religion has good points and that faith has some good points and become an amalgamation of parts of various beliefs.  If we are to live a Christian life we need to focus on what God values.  A Survey by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life/The Pew Reasearch Center for the People and the Press… a recent survey:

Paranormal Possibilities … The percentage of American adults who say they have supernatural beliefs and experiences…

Have been in touch with the dead
Total adult population – 29%
Christians – 29%

Have seen or been in the presence of God
Total adult population – 18%
Christians – 17%

Have consulted a psychic
Total adult population – 15%
Christians – 14%

Believe in astrology
Total adult population – 25%
Christians – 23%

Believe in reincarnation
Total adult population – 24%
Christians – 22%

Believe in “evil eye,” i.e. the casting of curses
Total adult population – 16%
Christians – 17%

Believe spiritual energy exists in physical things like mountains, trees and crystals
Total adult population – 26%
Christians – 23%

Christianity is about living in a relationship with God and living our lives under His direction and with His values.  Christians have gotten themselves so distracted by the life and world going on around us that we have lost sight what is important.  Time for us to set aside the rules and regulations, we can’t live up to them anyway, and allow the life of God to invade our hearts and minds and truly become who we were meant to become.


A fresh look at Jesus

Most of my life was spent in church.  I grew up in church, and as my church ran a school I grew up in church school.  I have been around “Christians” most of my life.  In fact, if it hadn’t been that I had enough of religion and got very angry with church and Christianity and God, I probably would have spent my whole life in church.  And one of the things that caused my disillusionment with religion was the amount of judgment going on between fellow Christians, and more often between Christians and those outside the church.  People were held to such high standards, that if the truth were known no one lived up to, that life was exceptionally difficult.  There was a rule for just about everything.  Some went so far to say if you were a boy that had hair touching the tops of your ears you were in sin.  Nothing but good crew cut for you young man.

Sound familiar?  In fact I have found many people who have had similar experiences, and have walked away from God and organized religion forever.   It is unfortunate because when you look at Jesus in scripture He was the most sincerely welcoming person in history.  He welcomed everyone He encountered, except for the hyper critical religious people.  And yet at times there seemed to be times where Jesus seemed critical of others.  On of those times is in a verse I want to look at.  It has been misunderstood by many and has been used to abuse people in churches for years.

The verses are found in Matthew chapter 18:15-17;

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.

16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’

17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

As a result of these verses many people have been ostracized and denied fellowship with fellow believers.  And it seems like Jesus is giving us permission to do this.  And it never sat right with me.  One person even asked me when it was right to kick someone out of the church and used these verses to back up his decision.  And many other abuses have happened.  In bible times a tax collector was the most hated of individuals by the Jews.  The were seen as traitors because they collected taxes for the Romans from their own people, and embezzlers because they were allowed to collect as much “taxes” as they wanted as long as Rome got what it wanted.  So they we very wealthy, and an extremely despised group of people.

This always gave me concern because Jesus accepted and fellowshipped with tax collectors so how could He be asking us to treat people in this way.  It just never added up.  And when I encountered God personally and came to know how immense His love for me was it just raised more questions.  Until I came to understand what Jesus was trying to say.  Jesus wasn’t trying to say for us to abuse people in this way at all.  Let’s look at these verses again but in the Message version;

“If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.

Jesus wasn’t telling us to remove them from fellowship at all.  He was simply asking us to treat them as a non-believer.  Simply to show them God’s love and share the message of the redemption from sin offered in Jesus.  Maybe they didn’t understand it before.  Not to treat them as less than human and not worthy of breathing the same air as us.

We as Christians have harmed a lot of people following verses like these without understanding them.  Jesus welcomed sinners with open arms and asked us to do the same.  I think much of what we consider “doctrine” needs review because our churches are supposed to be places you can feel welcome, especially when there is no where else to go.  A place of safety and non-judgment, where you can feel loved and accepted.  We are supposed to accept the person, and not the sin.  They are separate from each other.   Jesus would welcome everyone including the despised of our culture.  The pedophiles and homosexuals and murderers and rapists and everyone else that we look down our noses at.  He died and sacrificed His life for each of them.  Jesus never tolerated sin, but He never asked people to change until they came to Him as Saviour and Lord.  And then He began working inside them changing them from the inside and working with them until their lives reflect His image.

This is the Jesus I came to know, and the one who is still working on changing me.  And what an exciting journey it is.  I welcome everyone to come and take a second look.

Is Jesus returning for you and I

This past weekend hundreds of people around the world did their religious duty and went to church.  Others, who have become disillusioned with Christianity, spent their time in other pursuits, the last thing one their minds being “religion”.  In fact many people have been so put off by organized religion that they refuse to take part in anything remotely resembling it.  And with good reason.  Those of us who call themselves by the name of Christ have done Him a great disservice.   We have not been the “image of Christ” to the world.  Which is what we are supposed to be.

We have spent our time fighting among ourselves over non issues.  Whole denominations have been started over simple fights that could not be resolved.  Like the question of baptism.  Two denominations continue to fight about whether or not to baptize people in “the name of the  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” or in “Jesus name”.  Kinda seems trivial compared to the thousands that are going to hell each and every day.  Or the fight about what kind of music should be played in service, be it hymns or choruses, contemporary or classic, or even what instruments should be used.  Organs, or piano.  Or whether an electric guitar belongs in church.  Or, for that matter, whether or not instruments belong in church at all.

We fight over small doctrinal issues, that really don’t matter  in the scope of eternity, and spend our time in, what Paul warns against in 2 Timothy 2:23 “Again I say, don’t get involved in foolish arguments, which only upset people and make them angry.” And yet we consistently get involved in these quarrels.  Which church is right.  Which church is better.  Sounds like a playground squabble if there ever was one.  We choose to separate ourselves from each other based on simple differences that have been blown completely out of proportion.  And this happens within churches as well.  We form little clichés of people who are “faithful” and push aside those whom we don’t see as measuring up.

And yet if the truth be told none of us measure up.  We put on a good show, but like the Pharisees of scripture we are simply looking good for peoples benefit, and inside there is death.  Jesus called them “white-washed tombs”.  “I am not at all like the Pharisees” I can hear some people say.  But as soon as we lose site of our need for Christ, and begin to see ourselves as of more value to God than others that is exactly who we become. And then we wonder why no one wants what we are offering.

I think we have done ourselves a  great disservice.  Because Jesus isn’t returning for you and I anyway. I know this will be a controversial statement but it is the truth.  Jesus is returning for His bride.  One who is pure and spotless.  And the church is His bride.  Not a building somewhere we gather in.  We do not “go to church”.  We are the church.  And Jesus is returning for the church one day.  The whole, world-wide church.  We have chosen to separate ourselves from each other, and yet we all are who Christ is returning for.  Not you and I as individuals.  But the church body.

I broke my thumb a few weeks back, and as it heals I have been limited to what I can do.  And one morning while I worshiped together with other believers I can to a fuller understanding of Paul’s remarks that we are “all members of one body” in Romans 12:5 and the understanding of when one member of  the body hurts, all the members are affected.  And as I raised my hands in worship, you wouldn’t think that raising your arm would affect your thumb, my thumb began to ache.  And slowly that ache was felt up into my shoulder.  And I realized just how much of an effect an injured member has upon the other members of the body.  Or as my pastor says “Just try dropping a bottle of pop on your toe and see if your head doesn’t hurt.”

We need to come together, not to become the same as each other for that  is not how God created us, but in our diversity.  God did not make us all thumbs.  We would look pretty funny if  He did.  And yet when we attend our weekly services we seem to expect that of each other.  God is a God of diversity.  If you don’t believe me just look up at a rainbow, or watch a snow fall and try to find two that are the same.  And yet we try to “cookie cutter” ourselves.  Time for each of us in our uniqueness to rise up in our relationship to God and give that relationship voice and accept each other as we are, and for who we are.  Only can we then be the example of Jesus called us to be.  “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” John 13:34,35

Christians were meant to be the most welcoming and accepting people.  We are in the same boat as the rest of the world, except for the fact that we accepted the free gift of Jesus.  Which doesn’t make us better than anyone else.  We are still sinners saved by grace, and without the help of the Holy Spirit would not be able to change our lives at all.  Time for us to return to our roots, and forget ourselves and simply begin again to welcome people into the arms of Christ once again.  For without His work in us we would be just as lost.